The present invention generally relates to a mechanism for "hit" detection and, more particularly, to a hit detection mechanism in an object oriented programming (OOP) environment. The subject invention is a framework system which allows a programmer or applications developer to customize the search criteria for graphic objects so that an application can identify objects on which to perform a specified action. The invention is disclosed in terms of a preferred embodiment which uses a popular object oriented programming language, C++, but the principles are applicable to other computer programming languages both object oriented and procedural.